Tag Archives: modernworldhistory

We’ve been discussing in class the intellectual reaction to the industrial revolution. As thinkers, you know that every major historical event can be viewed via multiple perspectives, and depending on the perspective through which you view the event, your interpretation of that event/phenomena will vary. The industrial revolution is no different.

We’ve investigated the pros of the industrial revolution, but now we’ll begin to examine our Industrial Revolution guiding question, “To what extent was Industrialization feudalism in new clothes?” via primary source analysis.

Once assigned to your group, use the documents in the PDF below and the Document analysis guide passed out to you in class to further you acquisition of context and information pertaining to the above:

Napoleon’s rise to power mirrors that of many modern day dictators. In order to better understand Napoleon’s rise, i want you to also investigate the former dictator of Egypt, Hosni Mubarek’s, rise to power (that is not him in the above picture 😉

Download the learning helper below and use that in conjunction with your text to understand Napoleon’s rise to power and contrast it to a modern day dictator’s ascent.

Two quotes are relevant to our discussion and understanding of the TERROR during the french revolution:

“By any means necessary” and “does the end justify the means?” Both of these quotes contain within them assumptions about ethical systems. They both presume that if the outcome is good, then the way in which you achieve the outcome does not matter. All that matters is creating the most good for the most people (utilitarianism..i’ll cover this in class!), and if doing so requires violation of ethics or morality in the process, it’s ok because the end result is what is truly important.

Download both a copy of Robespierre’s Speech to the National Assembly below as well as the corresponding Learning Helper (formative assessment) designed to aide in your critical analysis of the document: